Space Dog Books is an interactive book publishing company that aims to introduce readers to new worlds through the use of touch-sensitive devices. Last month they released their first book app, Treasure Island – A Space Dog Book, and I was blown away by the experience.

I had the opportunity to speak with Tymn Armstrong, Art Director at Space Dog Books, and he was kind enough to share his thoughts on the project and give a behind the scenes look at the process of “creating universes in a digital world.”

Jon: Thanks for sharing with us. Congratulations on the launch of Treasure Island. When you set out to create content for these devices what led you to children’s books?

Tymn: First off, thanks! It was a lot of work. Over a year of production went into making it and it feels so great to see it completed.

I think we’re starting with children’s books because they present more challenges than adult books. There is this misconception that children’s publishing is easy because it’s for kids but it’s actually quite the opposite. It’s an extremely competitive industry with some of the most talented people in the world of books. That said, we do have plans for books that are not necessarily children’s books. We don’t ever want to limit ourselves.

Symmetry just put out a 35+ track album that will completely fulfill your post Drive(the Ryan Gosling movie) music needs, I grabbed Over The Edge because it had that confident bad guy feel, that walking tempo that will catch up to you no matter how fast you run, I love the stripped down break in the center too.

18 Carat Affair makes my brain and ears sigh, this interlude takes me back, I can’t believe the world will never graced with this kind of music for the public again, makes me dislike the worlds aesthetics right now soo much.

My friend Miguel turned me onto Maya Jane Coles, I guess I missed the boat, this dub is amazing, reminds me of what I thought Border Community might have matured into.

Poliça bothers me a bit, you named yourself the Polish word for The Police and you took the dub route like The Police… *sigh* sooooo whats going on creatively here? this project needs some formal tweaks because the music is soo promising and doesn’t need gimmicks.

The common misconception about 4/4 material mainly house and techno is that its waaaaay too repetitive, my reply to that is usually “oh really? i’m sorry, sooo you just listen to John Cage and experimental chamber music that doesn’t repeat one same note?”. If I share a 7 minute to 12 minute song to someone that doesn’t DJ there will be blank stares, that won’t change probably if you only listen to the radio.

Most of the long songs are made that long are that way because you’ll have time to mix them together, mostly a DJ tool for good DJs. Usually these producers are also DJs and have been for a long time so during song writing they prepare tracks that way. The actual meat and potatoes of these kind of songs usually last shorter than a pop song on the radio, its that opportunity to play it with another song together is why these tracks are that way….or there is just a great journey/sequence within the building up to something hypnotic to dance too.

Various shots of the late 80’s incarnation of Braun’s Atelier system in the wild. I don’t have much info on this, which seems to be the series 4, as all of the google results are in German. Perhaps someone can shed more light, translated page here. Absolutely love the TV monitor; that’s a work of art in itself.

I’ve been meaning to write up process posts for some of the work I’ve created while studying at the Academy of Art University, and now that it’s a new year I figured it would be a good time to get started.

Beast in a Neon Cage is the name of a hypothetical film festival I created during the Fall 2010 semester. The assignment was to create a festival for a director of our choice and develop a brand and visual identity to extend across multiple pieces including: a poster, catalog book, DVD set, soundtrack, letterhead, schedule, tickets, signage, website and numerous products. Previously, Alex wrote about the process of designing his festival for Wes Anderson here,here and here. Instructors at AAU continue to use his festival as a benchmark for a successful project.

Recently i’ve been working on a new Heathered Pearls mix for the ISO50 blog and tears came to my eye when I came across this gem from The Juan MacLean, the perfect marriage between Dub and Slow Disco and this perfectly adjusted daytime jam by Toby Tobias of one of the blogs favs Toro Y Moi < looks off into the distance proudly, single tear runs down my face >.

If this is your first taste of DMX Krew I suggest you get on iTunes, Insound or Boomkat UK and start grabbing up his work in the past, the man has an ear for one of a kind production, he always mashing together styles and synths sound you might never hear again.

The Seahawks take their turn on merging the sounds of our oceans and making them collide with what some of us have convinced ourselves space might sound like, the real magic sets in at 1:17 and on for the full effect, oh and happy new year everyone.

Happy New Year! Thought I’d start 2012 off right with some classic print design. Julian Montague has an excellent collection of vintage modern book covers which he posts to his blog under the Daily Book Graphics project. It’s so great to see people doing work like this, cataloging design history which might otherwise be lost or made inaccessible due to scarcity. Some beautiful inspiration for a new year and new designs, best of luck to everyone!